Judge orders mental evaluation for Catherine Hoggle, Maryland woman accused of killing her two children
A judge on Thursday ordered a mental evaluation to be conducted on Catherine Hoggle, a Maryland mother accused of killing her two children who disappeared in 2014, sources close to the case told CBS News Baltimore.
The move by the Montgomery County judge could pave the way for Hoggle to enter an insanity plea in her trial. Her next court date has been set for Sept. 24. Her defense would be Not Criminally Responsible, which is Maryland's equivalent of an insanity plea.
Hoggle is accused of killing her two children, Sarah and Jacob Hoggle, in 2014. Their bodies have never been found.
For nearly a decade, Hoggle was ruled incompetent to stand trial. Last year, a judge determined she was competent, and her trial date was set for this October.
At a hearing earlier this month, Hoggle's public defenders asked the court to allow the Not Criminally Responsible plea.
The disappearance of the children
Sarah and Jacob Hoggle were 2 and 3 years old, respectively, when they went missing, along with their mother, in September 2014.
The children's father, Troy Turner, reported them all missing, and Hoggle was found days later in a nearby town. Police said she refused to tell them where the children were.
Hoggle was initially arrested and charged with neglect and abduction, both misdemeanors. She was sent to a state-run psychiatric hospital for treatment.
Then, in 2017, she was indicted on murder charges, but a judge ruled she was incompetent to stand trial and imposed continuing court-ordered treatment.
History of mental problems
Hoggle's attorney, David Felsen, has long said she suffers from severe mental illness. She has a history of schizophrenia and was treated with antipsychotic medications after her arrest.
The children's father also previously acknowledged Hoggle's mental illness, saying she was acting erratically and paranoid before the disappearance.
He told The Associated Press in 2014 she had started showing signs of psychosis and was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. But he later claimed she was feigning incompetency.
Hoggle was released from the state-run psychiatric hospital just weeks before she was rearrested on two counts of first-degree murder last year. She was ordered to remain at Clifton T. Perkins Hospital in Jessup, Maryland.
